Having just patched a vulnerability tied to how Windows handles Control Panel icons and a day before a rather heavy Patch Tuesday arrives we have a new and nasty kernel vulnerability that affects all Windows versions.  This one seems a little odd but is no less threatening because of its target.  It would seem that pasting a large number of colour values, more than 256 specifically, into an improperly allocated buffer could allow one of those nasty net denizens to sneak in something malicious that will get to run its self with kernel level privileges.  The Register has more information, but unfortunately no cure.

“Researchers have identified a kernel-level vulnerability in Windows that allows attackers to gain escalated privileges and may also allow them to remotely execute malicious code. All versions of the Microsoft OS are affected, including the heavily fortified Windows 7.

The buffer overflow, which was originally reported here, can be exploited to escalate privileges or crash vulnerable machines, IT research company Vupen said. The flaw may also allow attackers to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges.”

Here is some more Tech News from around the web:

Tech Talk